Europa Universalis IV announced

[The Brain]

Are there good sources for the African nations at this time who did not interact with the Euros or the Arabs? Or are these just guestimates based on where these nations traditionally were located?

There are certainly good sources. Chest-face men and all.

[Eddie Teach]

Had an odd bug happen to me. I was making a peace deal with the Netherlands, taking all their colonies. As I was selecting provinces, when the war score got up to 34%, I got the red x instead of the green checkmark. I checked why- "would result in annexation or vassalization"  I tinkered with provinces in different places, kept getting that at 34%. Finally, I just loaded up all the provinces I wanted(like 50% WS or so) and it went back to the check mark, the vassalization malus gone. 

[Eddie Teach]

I had two Mexican provinces with level 8 forts selected in my peace deal, but it somehow went through without me getting them. 

[Razgovory]

Are there good sources for the African nations at this time who did not interact with the Euros or the Arabs? Or are these just guestimates based on where these nations traditionally were located?

Nope.  A couple years back I asked about weird culture group from 17th century Angola on this board.  Nobody knew anything and nobody could find any books on them.  They don't call it "The Dark Continent", because of the skin color of the residents.

[Duque de Bragança]

17th Century Angola actually  had some interaction with Europeans. Books exist about Queen Nzinga for instance. Primary sources are more likely to be in Portuguese though.
Was your question about the Jagas or Imbangalas?

[garbon]

Are there good sources for the African nations at this time who did not interact with the Euros or the Arabs? Or are these just guestimates based on where these nations traditionally were located?

Here's what p'dox said about their setup if only to close the book on Duque posing ridiculous rhetorical questions.

As in many other places in Africa we started with the Unesco history of Africa. It's not very fresh but it is thorough. For the extended Congo river area @Guillaume HJ has been of great help (just as he was with West Africa if you recall the West African dev diary back during art of war). UNESCO isn't the only source but it is probably the most useful due to its ambitious scope. Obviously real historical sources don't lend them to an exact map of the world in 1444 so some liberties has been taken such. Here are a few examples:

In some regions information is pretty spotty for our start date and in these cases we've extrapolated backwards a bit, named a state after another more famous entity that would absorb it soon enough or united tags prematurely (this is the case for most tags on Madagascar, many of them where really broken into chiefdoms of smaller size than an EU4 province). Such disunited areas are referenced in their idea sets and some provinces have heightened starting autonomy to account for it a bit as well.
The eastern Malagasy tag you see is Betsimisaraka and is an example of such a prematurely united tag.

For much Central Africa none can be sure of exact dates (among other things as we have no real literate direct sources for the 1444 period). That's always a tricky situation but given what we do know having the states there rather than leaving the area as a vacuum is more realistic (and more fun). For instance the Congo kingdom should be interacting with other states deeper into Africa rather than trying to "colonize" them and later on the Lunda Empire should be spreading via conquest and not colonization in game terms. From traditions and archaeology we know a bit about what was going on and who was doing it and from written sources how things turned out later which is what we've used (again much as in South America, where written sources are available only after the arrival of the Spanish, even if they are based on local recollections). We can be reasonably sure what entities where around but perhaps not exactly what they where up to in 1444. The guesswork is in the details more than in the overall picture and mostly adopted from the thoughts of greater (and more specialized minds). As always some considerations also have to be taken for gameplay.

So to summarize:
Any game has to be abstract by nature and even more so for regions where we don't have as good sources as we do for Europe, India, China and the Middle East. Undoubtedly there are some errors that have slipped in either by design or because we missed something (in case of the later I'll be expecting bug reports so we can fix them ). Still I dare say the new setup should do the region a lot more justice than the old wasteland covered approach.

[Zanza]

New Europa Universalis IV Expansion Pulls Into Port Master the Sea in Mare Nostrum

The grandest of grand strategy games will soon get even larger with Mare Nostrum, a new expansion for Europa Universalis IV. Ever since its 2013 release, Paradox Development Studio has labored to fill in the romantic and turbulent history of the early modern world. Now, with Mare Nostrum, we turn our eyes to the seas.

Among the many changes coming in Mare Nostrum is the idea of "sailors". Similar to the manpower statistic you are already familiar with, sailors will be required if you want to build or repair your ships. Your navy can also be sent out on missions with instructions on when to return home, reducing your need to babysit your fleets that are far from home.

Add in the coming changes to mercenaries, the map, espionage and trade leagues and we think Mare Nostrum's release will be something to celebrate.

Meh. I don't think this will fix the naval aspect of the game.

[garbon]

Yeah not at all.

[Razgovory]

17th Century Angola actually  had some interaction with Europeans. Books exist about Queen Nzinga for instance. Primary sources are more likely to be in Portuguese though.
Was your question about the Jagas or Imbangalas?

Imbangalas.  There is very little written in English about them.  I imagine there might be more in Portuguese, after all it is the history of Portugal as well.

[crazy canuck]

New Europa Universalis IV Expansion Pulls Into Port Master the Sea in Mare Nostrum

The grandest of grand strategy games will soon get even larger with Mare Nostrum, a new expansion for Europa Universalis IV. Ever since its 2013 release, Paradox Development Studio has labored to fill in the romantic and turbulent history of the early modern world. Now, with Mare Nostrum, we turn our eyes to the seas.

Among the many changes coming in Mare Nostrum is the idea of "sailors". Similar to the manpower statistic you are already familiar with, sailors will be required if you want to build or repair your ships. Your navy can also be sent out on missions with instructions on when to return home, reducing your need to babysit your fleets that are far from home.

Add in the coming changes to mercenaries, the map, espionage and trade leagues and we think Mare Nostrum's release will be something to celebrate.

Meh. I don't think this will fix the naval aspect of the game.

Introducing sailors won't.  But perhaps the fleet missions will do something more than set a timer on when they return to port.

[Zanza]

Playing a game as Brandenburg. I allied Poland right from the start and eventually got Austria as an ally after a year or two. I attacked the Teutonic Order for Neumark. Got a mission to vassalize Anhalt next and then got the Pommeranian Succession mission, which gives you claims on Kolberg and Stolp. During that war, I also force-vassalized Pommeranias ally Mecklenburg. Went on conquer Lüneburg and annexed Lübeck in that war as well. Got Pommerania as a vassal after another war. Saxe-Lauenburg got Hamburg and Holstein from Denmark in a war that Austria and me fought against Denmark. I force-vassalized Saxe-Lauenburg afterwards and fed them Verden and East Frisia. My last war was to conquer Slesvig, Fyn and Sealand. I now pretty much control the Lübeck trade node. My next expansion target will obviously be the Teutonic Order once my latest truce with them expired. They are allied to Muscowy, but I guess I can draw Poland and Lithuania in on my side, maybe even Austria. I got the defensive and the diplomacy idea groups (not full yet), which gives a nice boost to my military and my conquest capabilities.

This is on the latest patch, but I don't have the last DLC.

[Zanza]

Naval Missions are selected from the new mission interface, and each mission targets either a sea/coastal region or a trade node. The old missions to Protect Trade, privateer, Hunt Pirates and Explore are available (depending on which expansions you currently own), just as before, but Mare Nostrum adds three new naval missions.

• Hunt Enemy Fleets - Your ships will automatically try to hunt down weaker enemy fleets in the region to sink them.
• Blockade Enemy Ports - This divides your fleet, and attempts to blockade as many ports as possible in the region.
• Intercept Transports - Your ships will protect coastlines in region and prioritize attacks on any transport fleet.
  

The Detach Damaged feature for Ships has gotten a huge boost in Mare Nostrum. Now, ships that are detached from a fleet will a automatically rejoin their original fleet when they have been repaired.

In 1.16, naval leaders will also get siege pips. Each of those pips will increase blockade efficiency by 10%. If you have Mare Nostrum, you'll now also able to reassign naval leaders while fleets are at sea, as long as they are within supply range.

Naval Combat has gotten a complete overhaul as well. First of all, we removed the positioning mechanic, as it was not terribly useful, and players couldn't really affect it anyway.

Now, there is a restriction in how many ships can fire at a single time in a naval combat. 20 ships is the baseline, 10% more ships can fire in coastline, and there is a variation of 10% more or less based on the differences between the maneuver ability of each fleet's commander..

Also, Morale Damage is inflicted on all ships still floating whenever a ship is sunk, with up to 2% damage.

A ship being sunk has a chance of being captured instead of sunk, which depends on the enemy commanders maneuver value. If a fleet retreats, all its captured ships are immediately scuttled.

Sounds promising. Let's see how well it works.

[garbon]

Test will be if it is set up such that AI is competently using those features. Otherwise it is really just chrome that will cut down on micromanagement of fleets.

[Eddie Teach]

One thing that's annoys me about this game is how slow/unfun the starts everyone but Ottomans get seem in comparison. Even the major powers- England- crappy king, looming disaster. Spain, crappy king, waiting on inheritance. France- they can take cores from England(not that easy with England's naval superiority), but any other expansion will cost a ton of AE and admin points. Ottomans can basically start out with 10 years of conquest and not spend a single admin point. Then they get missions that give them 8 claims at a time. Would be nice if other countries could get those. "Conquer Catalonia" or "Conquer the Low Countries".

[garbon]

So encouragement for things those countries aren't supposed to do?